Liivi- ja Kuramaa aadlike kirjanduslik enesekuvand XVII sajandi pilkeluules
The identity of Livonian and Courlandian nobility in 17th-century satirical poetry

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the formation of the identity of 17th-century Livonian and Courlandian nobility as reflected in their predominantly unpublished satirical poems – verse satires, witty epigrams, and sonnets – during the reign of various rulers (Poland, Sweden, and Denmark) and amid internal conflicts between the local hereditary elites and new nobility. The study aims to diachronically analyze which characteristics of the nobility are ridiculed and criticized in satirical poems, and how the tools of humanist and Baroque poetry – contrast, allegory, imagery, personification, comparison, etc. – were employed for the self-defence, self-representation, and self-justification of the Livonian and Courland nobility within their actual political circumstances.

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